Chocolate cookbook arrives just in time for Valentine's Day

Wade Allen WadeAllenStar

Tuesday

Feb 6, 2018 at 4:36 PMFeb 6, 2018 at 4:36 PM

Founders of a bean-to-bar chocolate factory are sharing decadent recipes just in time for Valentine’s Day.

"Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’more" is more than just chocolate recipes. It’s a 367-page hardcover guide to making chocolate from scratch. Secrets are revealed about making it in your kitchen with only two ingredients: Cocoa beans and cane sugar.

There’s techniques such as roasting cocoa beans on a sheet pan and how to hold a chocolate tasting. The book follows the making of chocolate from farms to factories to kitchens.

Todd Masonis, one of the authors, is CEO of Dandelion Chocolate, a factory founded in 2010. It’s grown to now operate two factories in San Francisco, Calif., and one in Tokyo.

The book is available online from Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and other retailers.

Here’s two chocolate recipes for you to try:

Dandelion Brownie

Yield: 24 (2 × 2-inch) brownies

The authors say: This recipe is one of the best to showcase different kinds of chocolate side by side. In our café, we serve a “flight” of three of these brownies, each made with a different chocolate. While maintaining the same fudgy texture, each brownie tastes completely unique because of the origin used. This brownie is dense, gooey, and decadent, studded with melty chocolate chunks. Roasted nibs add the same crunchy, earthy balance that nuts would.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, plus more for the pan

2 cups chopped 70 percent tempered chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup plus 1 Tablespoon cocoa nibs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a 9×13-inch standard baking dish. Place the 1 cup butter and 1¼ cups of the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Melt the chocolate and butter completely, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the pot and set it aside to cool. Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, whisking vigorously to combine. The mixture may look grainy and separated — this is OK. Add the eggs and vanilla, and whisk until the batter starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Using a spatula, fold the flour and salt into the mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the remaining ¾ cup of chocolate. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to evenly distribute and smooth it. Sprinkle the nibs on top, and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the brownies in the baking pan; for clean, straight edges, refrigerate them in the pan for several hours. Then cut them into 2-inch squares. The brownies will keep in a tightly covered container for several days.

Cocoa Nib Cold-Brew Coffee

Yield: Eight 8-ounce servings

The authors say: This cold brew is our take on traditional New Orleans–style iced coffee, which is an old southern tradition that dates back to the days of the Civil War, when adding chicory to coffee was an inexpensive way to stretch low rations. These days, you’ll still find a few cafés that make it that way in Louisiana (and San Francisco), where it’s usually mixed with sugar and milk. Our former longtime café mentor and manager Maverick thought that roasted nibs might add the same kind of toasty, chocolatey complexity to coffee, so he invented this café mainstay. The best nibs for this recipe depend on the flavor notes in the coffee you use. Generally, we like what fruitier and chocolatey nibs bring to the espresso we get from Four Barrel Coffee down the street, so we use our nibs from Ambanja, Madagascar, and nibs from Camino Verde, Ecuador, for an even more chocolatey result. You might start by tasting the coffee and balancing its flavors: Is the coffee more acidic? Go for chocolatey or nutty nibs. Is it all dark, earthy notes? Add some fruity nibs for brightness.

Ingredients:

1½ cups espresso coffee beans (see note)

½ cup cocoa nibs

8 cups cold water

Milk, for serving (optional)

Sugar, for serving (optional)

Note: We use Four Barrel Friendo Blendo, but any tasty espresso will do. You may also substitute your favorite strong coffee beans.

Directions:

Grind the coffee beans to a coarse grind, as you would for a French press, and grind the nibs to a similar size using a spice grinder. Pour the coffee beans and nibs into a ½-gallon (2-liter) container. Pour the cold water into the grounds, making sure to saturate all of the coffee and nibs (shaking or stirring if necessary). Screw a lid on the jar and let steep for 12 to 24 hours, to your desired strength. The longer you brew, the stronger it will be. After the desired brew time, pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve; if more clarity is desired, slowly pour it through a paper filter instead. Dilute with milk (or water), and add sugar to taste. Serve over ice.

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